Reading:The Cross of Christ pg. 98-104
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3.19-20
A full acknowledgement of human responsibility and therefore guilt, far from diminishing the dignity of human beings, actually enhances it. It presupposes that men and women, unlike the animals are morally responsible beings, who know what they are, could be and should be, and do not make excuses for their poor performance…In his justly famous essay ‘The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment’, C.S. Lewis bemoans the modern tendency to abandon the notion of just retribution and replace it with humanitarian concerts both for the criminal (reform) and for society as a whole (deterrence). For this means, he argues, that every lawbreaker ‘is deprived of the rights of a human being. The reason is this. The humanitarian theory removes from punishment the concept of desert. But the concept of desert is the only connecting link between punishment and justice. It is only as deserved or undeserved that a sentence can be just or unjust.’ Again, ‘when we cease to consider what the criminal deserves and consider only what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice altogether; instead of a person, a subject of rights, we now have a mere object, a patient, a “case”.’ By what right may we use force to impose treatment on a criminal, either to cure him or to protect society, unless he deserves it? | Stott pg. 102, 103
Do I minimize my own sin? In what ways does that not only disrespect God’s holiness, but also the image of God you bear?
Guilty, vile, and helpless me;
Spotless Lamb of God was he,
Full atonement, can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
-Ira Sankey